Dear Sassafras

Dear sassafras aka Tim and Beck:

How I love your unique designs full of vintage touches, quirkiness, humor and flamboyant color combinations.  I find your products beautiful, intriguing and fun to use (I don't like to play favorites, but Sunshine Broadcast is one of my all time most beloved collections *ever*).  Case in point, Soleil which you designed in collaboration with Basic Grey last year (it happens to be on sale on Basic Grey's website right now).  I love it.  I love it even more today than I did when I first saw it displayed on my computed screen on Basic Grey's blog when they unveiled their Summer CHA 2012 collections.  And I love that I can mix in a stamped flower I had sitting on my work table from a previous doomed card to create something wholly new for my friend's birthday.  I decided to let myself be free as your designs foster creative adventures.

Here's my card which was delightful to make, although I am not sure it does your designs justice:

I plan to use Soleil all over the place and if I could I would wallpaper my room in your paper.  That isn't much of a hyperbole....as I type it I am considering whether I could wallpaper a wall of my room with your paper, but I hate to wallpaper...the preparation, the glue that doesn't quite work or works too well, the air bubbles, arms raised for long moments above the head and most of all the thought of in the future when I may want to/have to change things removing said wallpaper.  Will you be disappointed if I don't wallpaper my room with your paper?  Instead I may just place your papers in frames to hang on the wall.

You are awesome.  I hope to see many more of your designs in the future (please!!!!), but until then I will be (not at all like a crazy person) fervently admiring (soon in frames) and occasionally even using my vintage sassafras stash.

A fan,
Shay.

By the way, if you want a chance to win some free art products including stamps this weekend, check out my Paper Wings Productions' Design Team Blog Hop post HERE.

Supplies:
Stamp: Funky Florals (limited edition), Papertrey Ink
Ink: harvest gold, Papertrey Ink; bubble gum, orange soda, stone wash, Hero Arts Shadow Ink
Cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific; piece of cardstock previously sprayed with mists
Patterned paper: Soleil 6x6 paper pad, Basic Grey
Other: tag sale #3 die collection, Papertrey Ink; Cuttlebug, Provo Craft; element stickers and title stickers from Soleil collection, Basic Grey; doily; dimensional adhesive; Inkssentials ink blending tool, Ranger

Paper Wings Productions' May Design Team Blog Hop

Welcome Paper Wings peeps!

With April showers brings "May Flowers" which happens to be the theme for this month's Paper Wing Productions' Design Team Blog Hop and giveaway! If you've arrived here from Dana's blog, then you're in the right place. If you just happened to stumble into the hop, please CLICK HERE to start from the beginning because you won't want to miss any project.

My backyard is coming into bloom.  The fiery flowers on the pomegranate tree are bursting open and the dainty white flowers on the lemon tree are lending their sweet scent to the air.  We just planted jasmine to climb up the back fence and charm us with their fragrance.  Flowers are such lovely blessings and this month our creativity is in bloom using Paper Wings Productions stamps to bring you some floral inspiration. We’re also giving away a gift certificate to Paper Wings Production’s online store to one lucky follower.

For a chance to win, all you need to do is:

• be a follower of the Paper Wings Productions blog, The Aviary. 
• visit each of the participating designer's blogs and leave them some love. Then go back to The Aviary and leave a comment letting them you completed the hop. 
• to increase your chances of winning, like the Paper Wings Productions Facebook page and/or invite your friends to the hop. 
• then just come back and let us know! Be sure to leave a separate comment for each of the additional entries. 

The winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 on the The Aviary.

I decided to make a little gift of notecards that can be given to your mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, friend or another mother figure in your life for this upcoming Mother's Day.

My color palette and the papers I chose are funky and bold with a dash of fun thrown in for good measure.  No shrinking violets here!

What I love about this project is that we all have so much patterned paper, colored cardstock and inks that we can easily make this for anyone and customize it to suit their taste in a short amount of time for practically any occasion.  Need a hostess gift?  No problem.  Need a gift for your child's teacher?  Not an issue at all.  A neighbor is moving away?  Send them off which this gift to keep in touch!  Meeting with a friend who is going through a rough patch?  This makes a thoughtful gift to show you care.  Going to a wedding shower?  Make a batch of these up to match the wedding colors/theme and add the bride's new initials so she can send out personalized thank you notes.

I wanted to show you a very simple version that you can use as a jumping off point.  I stamped the flower with leaves from Flower Power or Floral in Versamark on a piece of blue cardstock and attached it to a larger sheet of patterned paper.  I mixed it up by using several different sheets of patterned paper from the same collection pack.  You can make dozens of these in no time.  For more interest simply heat emboss the image or stamp a word, name or initials over the image using any number of Paper Wings Production's alphabets like Perfect Alphabet, Funky Alphabet or Whimsical Solid Alphabet.

For the envelope I stamped the floral border from Kind Words or Moments on the back flap and also on the bottom of the front of the envelope as well as used the frame from Life Framer for the address and again stamped the flower with leaves image from Flower Power or Floral.

Next I stamped all the little flowers from Flower Power and Single Flowers in matching inks on some mailing seals and added the sentiment from Sophie over each one in brown ink.  I love the mailing seal as it adds a sweet little touch to an envelope.

We all know how important packaging a gift is...it makes all the difference.  To package my notecard set I reused clear packaging that I then wrapped in three layers of strips of patterned paper.  The bottom layer is punched with a daisy border punch and the top strip stamped with the floral border from Kind Words or Moments.  I finished it up with a bow cut from another piece of patterned paper.  I must admit I really adore the bow.

Now it's time for your next hop on this parade of flowers.  Make sure to head on over to Carrie's blog next!

***Here is the complete line up just in case you get lost along the way:

 

Laura Austin Tatsch - http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com/

Dana Tatar - http://datatar.blogspot.com/

Shay - http://verdigrishall.blogspot.com/ <=====YOU ARE HERE

Carrie Avery - http://www.carrieavery.com/

Tara Chaussee - http://secretbeesstudio.blogspot.com/

Amber Rasmussen - http://sew-ink.blogspot.com

Norma Gomez - http://lilhoneybeestudios.blogspot.com/

The Aviary­ - http://paper-wings-productions.blogspot.com/

Thank you so very much for visiting with me and have fun being showered by the May Flowers blog hop!

Happy creating,

Shay.

Supplies:
Stamps:

InLinkz.com

Inks: Versamark, Tsukineko; pale tomato, green hills, red royal, pool, bubble gum and orange soda shadow inks, Hero Arts; dark chocolate, Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: blue, Neenah Paper
Patterned paper: Marmelade paper pack, Marcella by K&Company
Other: daisy lace deep edge punch, Martha Stewart Crafts; bow tie die, Lifestyle Crafts; Cuttlebug, Provo Craft; mailing seals, Avery

Make It Monday No. 106: Two-Toned Stamped Flowers

Happy Friday (or Saturday)!

Tonight I bring you a card I made for my mom's birthday this week.  She's in love with aquas and turquoises right now so that dictated the monochromatic color scheme.  I was inspired by Make It Monday No. 106: Two-Toned Stamped Flowers by Melissa Phillips (isn't she amazing?  If you haven't seen her work I highly recommend spending some time over at her blog) although I used two colors very similar to each other: tumbled glass (pale aqua) and broken china (turquoise/teal) that blended much more than in the example by Melissa Phillips.

What I did:

1. I colored in solid peony from Pretty Peonies (unfortunately no longer available) with the tumbled glass Distress Marker and then came back in with broken china Distress Marker only coloring in about half the stamp.  I misted the image lightly with water before stamping the flower 3 times.  I over stamped the outline peony with broken china Distress Ink.
2. I pleated a strip of pattern paper.  I cut out the bracket tab from Fabulous Frames Die Collection from white cardstock and stamped the sentiment from Mini Blooms (love, love this font!) in broken china.  I adhered that down and then adhered the pleated pattern paper (I used Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive which worked fabulously) over it.
3. I drew a frame around the top part of the card using my broken china Distress Marker.
4. My peonies needed some leaves so used the leafy Lovely Layers die from the Lovely Layers Die Collection to cut from vellum twice.  I folded them over and then attached them to the cluster of peonies.
5. I added some sparkle to the peonies with Stickles.
6. I adhered two stripes of the pattern paper onto the right and left sides of a 4.25 x 5.5 inch white card base and added my flower panel over that using dimensional adhesive. 

Voila!  Thankfully, my mom liked the card.  And maybe you will too.  Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit.

Oh and if you are interested I will be blogging at The Aviary Monday (a mixed media project) and also on Monday I am introducing my brand new (my first!) blog feature that I may be a tiny bit excited about.

Until Monday,
Shay.

Supplies:
Stamps: Pretty Peonies (limited edition and no longer available) and Mini Blooms, Papertrey Ink
Inks: broken china, Tim Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Papertrey Ink; vellum
Patterned Paper: Shoreline 6x6 paper pad, American Crafts
Markers: broken china and tumbled glass, Tim Holtz Distress Markers by Ranger
Dies: Fabulous Frames Die Collection and Lovely Layer Die Collection, Papertrey Ink
Other: star dust Stickles, Ranger; dimensional adhesive; Cuttlebug, Provo Craft; Quick-Dry Adhesive, Scotch